Sister Sophie Swenson has been called to serve in the California San Fernando mission! She reports July 1st 2015 and will return home January of 2017!

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Monday, August 3, 2015

110 Degrees....

Well this week was one adventure that's for sure! I don't even know where to begin haha! sometimes I feel like I should be hospitalized from all the different emotions I feel In one day... it is seriously sooo crazy!! well I finally hit my 1 month mark!!! wahoo 17 more to go!! its crazy how fast its going but yet it seems like its been 20 years since ive seen you all! :) Well on Tuesday during knock out we met a really cool guy named cody, he is YSA aged so that is always so great!! We told him about the plan of salvation and he was super interested in it, he said that its really cool to know where we are going after death! I have seriously taken so much for granted! I cant even understand not knowing where we will go after this life.. Then later that day we met with our new investigator Ashton! He is so great! we talked to him about the Restoration! Ashton has been an atheist his whole life and has only prayed once or twice in his life. He has met missionaries a lot but he said when he met us a week ago something was different about us, which caused him to want to learn more! So during his lesson we were talking about the atonement, he was in awe that we could be forgiven about anything bad we have done in our lives. He was like wow is that what it means when people say Christ died for our sins? Me and sister Hoffman were like YES that's exactly what it means! it is so amazing to see the hope and light that comes into people eyes when they hear that beautiful truth that we can literally be forgiven of anything! :) That was seriously the coolest lesson I have taught so far on my mission! The atonement is so amazing and I am soo grateful for my savior Jesus Christ for dying for me so that I can live with my heavenly father again! :) Later that night we went and visited a less active named alexis the guys door we knocked on last week! we were just talking about the book of Mormon and told him to start reading it again and so he said that he would and after he was like wow I feel like im on a high right now and we told him that, that was the spirit he was feeling! it was so cool to witness him feeling the spirit again :)

Oh man do I have a story for you! get ready to hear this one!! so probably the biggest trial I have faced on my mission was probably killing our 1 st spider in our apartment! ;) I really realized how much i take my dad for granted when he kills the spiders for me! it took us 45 mins to kill it!! haha so me and sister Hoffman were saying our companion ship prayers on Tuesday night when I looked up at our bedroom ceiling to find a spider... yeah not okay! so we both just sat there for a good 10 mins wondering what the heck we were going to do... so sister Hoffman being the good companion that she is got some toilet paper and a shoe and tried to kill it! This spider would not DIE!!! so it started running across the celling real fast and so we tried again and it still wouldn't die so finally we got a box and we slapped the box on it, and me and sister Hoffman were both on this chair holding the box when out of the corner of my eye I see it climbing up her arm... oh man I have never been so scared in my life haha so she got it off her arm and we hurried and trapped it with a clear container so it couldn't crawl away haha then we scooted it all the way to the door way to let it out... its was soo crazy!

Wednesday we were out knocking and we knocked on this born again Christians house, and she invited us in and all that to talk with us. she was really nice but oh man does she hate the Mormons! She was so concerned for us and was like you guys have been deceived... you are on the path way to hell! It kind of hurt to hear someone tell me im going to hell for believing in Jesus! but Then she was going off about Jospeh smith and how much she hates him and it made me so sad to see someone that sacrificed his life for this wonderful gospel to be chewed out by a lady that knows nothing about him! that day as I walked out of her house I knew more than ever that Joseph Smith was a prophet of god! Josephs name really will be heard for good and evil as it has been told! We should never doubt gods prophets!! :) something I read in my personal studies this week was "Why does the lord allow the evil speaking to chase after the good? one reason is that opposition against the things of god sends seekers of truth to their knees for answers" I love that soo much because that is truly how we find our answers as we ask god! :)

So of course the hottest week of my mission so far our car would break down and our air conditioning in our apartment would stop working...it has been 110 everyday here! our car hasn't been starting so its been in the shop the last 4 days, hopefully it gets done today!! we have been living with the other sisters so we have been fine but its hard not being able to get around to where we need to be!!

so on knock out on Friday I had the feeling we needed to go to this certain street so we went to this street and there were these 2 14 year old girls standing there so we started talking to them about the gospel and asked them if they would read the book of Mormon and they said YES!! its so cool how the spirit really leads you to those people that are prepared to hear this wonderful message!

we found 5 new investigators this week so that was awesome! im so excited to start teaching them :) Being a missionary is GREAT and I love it, but it is very hard! I love the quote "We don't conquer the mountain we conquer ourselves." Its so true! we just gotta be strong and endure to the end! :) I love this gospel and love sharing it each and everyday with these wonderful people of California!! Thanks for all your prayers! I truly feel them each and everyday! :) Love you all!